Alton Brown, Man v. Food, and the Rise of TV Gluttony

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It's not like Food Network personalities to break ranks, which is one reason I was so happy when Alton Brown did so last week. Brown, a scholarly type who has played the part of the Food Network's intellectual-in-residence since its inception, let fly his feelings about the lowbrow Man v. Food, a cheerfully vulgar celebration of gluttony hosted by regular guy Adam Richman. Brown accused the show of celebrating gluttony, a rebuke that makes about as much sense as accusing Hooters of celebrating boobs. (In a way, though, I guess you could say that Man v. Food also celebrates boobs.) Calling the show "disgusting" and "an embarrassment," Brown made a moral point — he's a dedicated Christian, and he finds Richman's epic chowdowns untoward in a world where one in three people don't get enough milk, or whatever. It's a valid position, but it's also totally obvious and irrelevant, not to mention impolitic. I think Alton Brown was just fed up. And I don't blame him!

Although all current food TV shows have a common ancestor, as they say in biology — a person who stood in front of a pot and talked about cooking — the genre has stretched and telescoped to fold into all the different parts of the fragmented, Argus-eyed American viewing audience. At one time that audience consisted of housewives tended to by Brown, Rachael Ray, Mario Batali, and the other members of the Food Network's founding generation. But now the network, to stay relevant, has to cater to the Dude Demographic (home to Guy Fieri's armies, as well as Richman's), the MXC Whoo! Whoo! crowd (Top Chef and its imitators, like Chopped and Top Chef: Masters), as well as the Global Gluttons (No Reservations, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern), not to mention a vastly expanded audience of, yes, curious housewives tended to by hostesses of varying ethnicity and sex appeal. To someone like Alton Brown, who spent so many years trying to educate and inform a broad, featureless public about food — entertainingly, cleverly, unthreateningly, and with great intelligence — the last few years must have been rough ones. His comments echo those of erudite editors and cookbook writers who found themselves obsolete overnight, marginalized by a bunch of burger-obsessed bloggers. But what did they think was going to happen? That the culture was going to become more thoughtful, more patient, with higher standards? No. That's like thinking that a chicken is going to get whiter and rawer the longer you leave it in the oven.

I'm not saying that Brown is wrong to lament shows like Man v. Food. I can't even watch Man v. Food, and I'm essentially the same person as Adam Richman. I'm just saying that Alton Brown has to let go a little bit. The battle he's fighting was over before it began.